DeLisle to leave downtown partnership, return to North Carolina

Alan DeLisle has resigned as executive director of the Louisville Downtown Partnership so he can reunite with his family in Durham, N.C.

DeLisle could not be reached for comment this week. His resignation was announced in a news release from the partnership.

A search will begin immediately for a new executive director, the release said.

Rebecca Matheny, assistant director of the partnership, will serve as interim director until a permanent replacement is found.

Downtown partnership chairman Jim Allen, president and CEO of Hilliard Lyons, said in the release that the organization is seeking a leader who can build on the foundation that DeLisle helped create.

“Alan came to Louisville with big plans — and he delivered, especially on the South Fourth retail district, the creation of a commercial loan fund and the streetscape improvements to better connect downtown with NuLu,” Allen said. “He was critical in bringing the Downtown Development Corp. and the Louisville Downtown Management District under one organization now called the Downtown Partnership.”

DeLisle said in the statement that he will pursue “private development opportunities.”

He added that the “people of Louisville are always in my heart.”

DeLisle came to Louisville in 2009, but shortly after his arrival, he was seriously injured when part of a downtown building he was touring collapsed. He went back to Durham, where he had worked previously, to recover, and his family never moved to Louisville when he returned.

DeLisle told Business First for a 2011 profile article that he wanted to come back to Louisville to make a difference here.